Secular Rescue, when you get down to its core, is not just about protecting atheists and freethinkers who seek the basic human rights of freedom of expression, conscience, and religion—the freedom to believe or not believe. It’s about saving lives, lives that are often in grave danger from extremist ideologies, the people who practice them, and the governments that protect oppressive dogmas.
Secular Rescue has a somewhat narrow program purview. It is specifically designed to work with human rights defenders and, more specifically, to assist atheist writers and bloggers, as well as secular publishers and atheist rights activists, whose lives are in danger because of their nonreligious views or related activism.
For those who do not qualify for aid through Secular Rescue, there are several other organizations from which you can seek assistance:
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and the world’s largest grassroots human right organization, with more than 3-million supporters, members, and activists in more than 150 countries and territories; its primary mission has been to end the grave abuses of human rights, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty International finds the facts, exposes what’s happening, and rallies people together to force governments and others to respect everyone’s human rights. Its staff and volunteer leaders engage in direct advocacy with policymakers at the state and federal levels in the U.S., while rallying grassroots activists from all 50 states to demand that policymakers protect human rights in the U.S. and around the world. Through its Urgent Action Network and related casework supporting individuals at risk, millions of messages have been sent to governments around the world, giving hope to people in dire circumstances: https://www.amnestyusa.org/take-action/urgent-action-network/
The Atheist Refugee Assistance Program (ARAP), a program of Ateizm Derneği in Turkey, is tasked with helping refugees in Turkey who have escaped from religious persecution in their own countries to build a new life. Only asylum-seekers and refugees who had to leave their homes due to being nonbelievers, as clearly stated in their immigration documents, can benefit from this service: http://www.ateizmdernegi.org.tr/arap-en/
Germany’s Atheist Refugee Relief (ARR) aims to assist secular refugees with finding suitable housing; accompanies them to offices, doctors, and lawyers; and helps nonbelievers access suitable language and integration courses. ARR also provides physiological and psychological therapy: https://atheist-refugees.com/en/
Through the Atheist Support Network, Atheist Alliance International (AAI) helps atheists through the asylum process by providing advice, letters of support, and cash to cover expenses such as medical reports, passports, and legal fees. AAI has a variety of options for atheists whose lives are not in immediate danger. It helps make life more bearable by connecting nonbelievers with other atheists in their own country. It uses a four-stage process: assessing and prioritizing cases; collecting evidence for verification of facts; agreeing on the best methods of assistance; and providing advice and resources as agreed in a plan: https://www.atheistalliance.org/atheist-support-network/
Atheist Republic (https://www.atheistrepublic.com) is the largest community of atheists in the world. It provides support and amplifies the voices of those who need protection, especially in countries where people feel isolated simply for their nonbelief. Their site includes news, resources, and a medium for atheists to freely express themselves in a variety of ways, including through discussion forums, blogs, and local chapters known as the Atheist Republic Consulates: https://www.atheistrepublic.com/consulates.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) is a nonprofit organization working to protect and promote human rights in Iran. It comprises award-winning journalists, researchers, lawyers, activists, writers, multimedia specialists, and advocates based around the world who work to support the basic rights and freedoms of the Iranian people.
CHRI engages in extensive international advocacy, working to inform the international community of rights violations in Iran and to support international initiatives that help to address these issues. They have an active presence at the UN, and their reps regularly brief UN diplomats and human rights bodies. The CHRI advocates with UN members on the Human Rights Council and partners with activists and human rights organizations around the world to advance human rights in Iran: https://iranhumanrights.org
With its Gene Roberts Emergency Fund, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) provides support to frontline journalists and works to ensure that all journalists are aware of safety and security issues before entering a conflict zone. CPJ works to prevent deaths, detentions, kidnappings, and other dangers through information-sharing and practical guidance. It provides on-the-ground advocacy and rapid-response support to journalists who are injured, imprisoned, or forced to flee because of their work: https://cpj.org/emergency-response/
Dignity for All’s LGBTI Assistance Program provides emergency assistance, security, opportunity, and advocacy via its rapid response grants (SOAR grants). It also provides security-assessment and training for human rights defenders and civil society organizations under threat or attack due to their work for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex human rights: https://freedomhouse.org/programs/LGBTI-assistance
Every year, the Ex-Muslims of North America (EMNA) establishes an Emergency Fund to aid apostates in dire times—from escaping abuse to finding shelter and professional assistance. Whenever possible, any aid is given directly to a vendor or creditor so there is certainty that the funds serve the purpose for which they were intended. In addition to funds, cases require immense time and energy from staff and volunteers, and, like many secular-humanitarian organizations, EMNA is deluged with requests for aid.
The financial assistance that’s doled out has helped numerous ex-Muslims through a variety of emergency hardships, including:
- escaping physically abusive family members;
- sudden homelessness due to family learning of apostasy;
- escaping forced marriages;
- and escaping forced relocation to a Muslim country.
EMNA has only a limited capacity to provide direct assistance to apostates who are not in the United States or Canada. However, EMNA may be able to connect you with groups and activists who might be able to help. Contact EMNA at [email protected] with details about your case.
European Association for the Defense of Human Rights (AEDH) is a European network of more than thirty member organizations and individual members. AEDH defends and promotes human rights in the European Union while working for a democratic Europe that guarantees freedoms and rights of all without discrimination. It defends not only civic and political rights but also economic, social, and cultural rights: http://www.aedh.eu/en/
With its Emergency Assistance program, Freedom House (FH) has been providing short-term support to human rights defenders, civil society organizations, and survivors of severe religious persecution in some of the world’s most repressive and conflict-ridden regions. FH assistance reaches frontline activists and civil society organizations at their moments of greatest need. It has helped the hunted to survive attacks, gives them the means to resume their critical work, and in many cases literally saves lives: https://freedomhouse.org/programs/emergency-assistance-and-thematic-programs
The European Resettlement Network is an inclusive network that supports the development of resettlement in Europe by connecting those involved in refugee resettlement. Network members have a shared commitment to refugee resettlement and protection, to ensure the provision of durable solutions for refugees, and to ensure that refugees resettled to Europe receive integration support that provides them the tools they need to become fully participating citizens: https://www.resettlement.eu
Free Hearts Free Minds (FHFM) is committed to helping ex-Muslims transition out of Islam and into a happy, healthy life. It presents ex-Muslims from Muslim-majority nations with the opportunity to receive coaching and mental-health support services by working with Jimmy Bangash (Integrated Wellness), an ex-Muslim psychotherapist who has lived through the experience of leaving Islam. Free Hearts Free Minds is run by Yasmine Mohammed and a group of kind and generous people who are passionate about helping others who have left Islam: https://www.freeheartsfreeminds.com/
Freedom from Religion Foundation (NonBelief Relief) is a humanitarian agency for atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, and their supporters. Through its program NonBelief Relief (NBR), it seeks to improve the only world we have by remediating conditions of human suffering and injustice on a global scale, whether the result of natural disasters, human actions, or adherence to religious dogma. Such relief is not limited to but includes assistance for individuals targeted for nonbelief, secular activism, or blasphemy: https://ffrf.org/outreach/nonbelief-relief-inc
Freedom Now is a nonprofit, nongovernmental, and nonpartisan U.S.-based organization that works to free nonviolent prisoners of conscience through focused legal, political, and public-relations advocacy efforts. Prisoners of conscience are persons detained for their political, religious, or other beliefs or because of their ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, color, language, national or social origin, economic status, birth, or other status. Freedom Now represents individual prisoners of conscience as pro bono clients. It strategically sequences legal, political, and public-relations advocacy to free prisoners of conscience from illegal detention: http://www.freedom-now.org
Founded in Dublin, Ireland, with the specific aim of protecting at-risk human rights defenders (HRDs), people who work for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Front Line Defenders addresses the protection needs identified by rights activists. It provides rapid and practical support to human rights defenders at risk through international advocacy on behalf of human rights defenders at risk, including emergency support for those in immediate danger; Protection Grants to pay for the practical security needs of human rights defenders; trainings and resource materials on security and protection, including digital security; rest, respite, and other opportunities for HRDs dealing with extreme stress; and an emergency twenty-four-hour hotline operating in Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/
Humanists International (HI) is one of several global representatives of the humanist movement, uniting a diversity of nonreligious organizations and individuals. It works to build, support, and represent the worldwide humanist movement by defending human rights (particularly those of the nonreligious), and promoting humanist values on a global scale. Its Humanists at Risk program works concertedly on cases of those who are facing charges or are already imprisoned for their promotion of humanist values and secularism. Anyone seeking assistance should be instructed to email [email protected] to request their help. The vast majority of HI’s casework is confidential to respect the individuals’ privacy and also to enhance their security and protection: https://humanists.international/what-we-do/supporting-individuals-at-risk/
As borders close and asylum-seekers face fewer options, helping atheists in trouble requires even more hard work and creative solutions. The Secular Underground Network of the International Association of Atheists (IAA) services include legal aid; assistance for those dealing with the emotional trauma resulting from fear, isolation, and rejection; referrals to other organizations with more specialized resources; and case-by-case assessments to determine the best methods for helping those who suffer from secular persecution and harassment: https://www.internationalatheists.org/
With its Human Rights Defenders Program, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) works to promote and protect human rights through collaboration and cooperation among human rights organizations and defenders in Asia and beyond. It includes a network of eighty-one members in twenty-one countries across Asia and is committed to building a peaceful, just, equitable, and ecologically sustainable community of peoples and societies in an Asia where all rights are fully respected and realized in accordance with internationally accepted human rights norms and standards. It does so by bringing together activists and stakeholders to tackle human rights issues; protecting human rights defenders in Asia who find themselves in emergency situations; and advocating for human rights at the national, regional, and international levels: https://www.forum-asia.org/
The Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN) is an informal grouping of NGOs operating at the EU level in the broader areas of human rights, democracy, and peace. HRDN’s vision is that human rights and democracy are placed at the heart of the EU’s internal and external policy agenda. This vision should manifest itself in an EU that effectively protects human rights at home and is a force for positive change in the world. In pursuit of this vision, HRDN aims to influence EU and EU Member States’ human rights policies and the programming of their funding instruments to promote democracy, human rights, and peace: https://hrdn.eu/
Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world. It is a group of country experts, lawyers, journalists, and others who work to protect those at risk. To ensure its independence, HRW refuses government funding and partners with organizations large and small across the globe to protect embattled activists and to help hold abusers to account and bring justice to victims: https://www.hrw.org
ICORN is an independent organization that offers shelter to writers and artists at risk, advances freedom of expression, defends democratic values, and promotes international solidarity. ICORN member cities offer long term shelter to those at risk as a direct consequence of their creative activities. It aims to be able to host as many persecuted writers and artists as possible to form a dynamic and sustainable global network for freedom of expression: https://www.icorn.org/
According to Germany’s International League of Non-Religious and Atheists (IBKA), human history is rife with inhumanity. Organized religion has greatly contributed to this, and it still does. There is no foreseeable end to religiously motivated violence and intolerance. Militant religious adherents commit violent acts on an almost daily basis. Those who have broken away from their religious dogmas are often socially rejected and defamed as morally inferior. Some fear for their lives. IBKA defends freedom of religion and freedom from religion by advocating for self-determination, rational thinking, and knowledge about the ever-present threat that religion poses for human rights worldwide: https://www.ibka.org/index.php/en/about-us
The primary mission of Minority Humanitarian Foundation (MHF) is to provide a humanitarian response to the issues facing asylum-seekers and refugees. MHF believes that all humans should be treated with dignity and respect. Through on-the-ground relief efforts, health services, housing, transportation services, and legal representation, MHF works to ensure the health and safety of the people is works with. Through education and job placement MHF also works to ensure refugee success in a new country: https://www.minorityhumanitarianfoundation.com
The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) denounces and fights against the use of torture, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, and impunity of grave violations of human rights. It uses national and international remedies, provides individual and personalized support to the victims and their families, and carries out inquiries and recollection of testimonies while broadcasting information through press releases and reports. Its Nassim Centre offers multi-disciplinary support (medical, mental, social, professional, and legal) and is committed to the defense of migrant’s rights and domestic-worker victims of exploitation and inhumane treatment: http://www.rightsobserver.org/
Through its advocacy at the national, regional, and international levels, PEN International promotes freedom of expression and defends writers at risk. The PEN Emergency Fund assists writers who have been persecuted and are in acute financial need. Many of them have had to flee after imprisonment. The Fund works closely with the team at PEN International and provides financial assistance that can quickly be transferred to the writers who need it, sometimes on the day of application: https://pen-international.org/supporting-writers-in-exile/pen-emergency-fund
Protect Defenders delivers a fast and specific 24/7 European Union response to support human rights defenders (HRDs) facing imminent danger or threats. The emergency grants program ensures that HRDs can access and implement urgent security measures to protect themselves, their family, and their work: https://www.protectdefenders.eu/en/index.html
Rainbow Refugee is a Vancouver-based community group that supports people seeking refugee protection in Canada because of persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression (SOGIE) or HIV status. The Rainbow Refugee Assistance Project is a private sponsorship agreement in partnership with Immigration, Refugees Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Through this program, LGBTQ communities across Canada have sponsored LGBTQ refugees: https://www.rainbowrefugee.com
The Assistance Desk at Reporters without Borders (RSF), based in France, provides financial and administrative assistance to professional journalists and citizen-journalists who have been the victims of reprisals because of their reporting. In cooperation with other NGOs that defend human rights, RSF helps the victims of violence related to reporting to obtain appropriate medical care. They help wrongfully prosecuted journalists pay their legal fees and threatened journalists to find a safe refuge. If journalists decide to flee abroad because of threats and persecution, RSF helps address their most urgent needs. They also help their clients cope with the consequences of the reprisals to which their loved-ones have been exposed: https://rsf.org/en/individual-support
Scholars at Risk (SAR) works with its global network of higher education institutions around the world to arrange short-term, temporary research and teaching positions for threatened scholars. It also provides advisory, referral, and career-support services for scholars. SAR can assist threatened scholars who are seeking short-term positions of refuge or assistance in resuming their academic careers. It also finds temporary research-based and teaching positions for threatened scholars with PhD degrees and significant teaching and/or research experience at a higher education institution: https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/get-help/
Shelter City is an initiative from Justice and Peace Netherlands designed to protect human rights defenders in cooperation with a growing number of Dutch cities and local organizations. Shelter City plays an important role in the promotion of democratic values, political freedoms, and civil rights through its established network of safe havens: https://sheltercity.nl/en/
Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB) envisions a world where refugees can rebuild their lives while contributing to the global economy. TBB is the only group developing work opportunities with and for refugees, enabling them to move on skilled-labor visas, as a solution to their protection needs. There are vast numbers of talented refugees currently prohibited from working. By linking skilled refugees with countries and companies that need their skills, TBB is forging a sustainable solution for refugees to help them rebuild their lives while boosting the global economy. Expanding labor mobility for refugees has the potential to improve the lives of refugees and their families and fundamentally alter future responses to refugee crises: https://talentbeyondboundaries.org
Are you in charge of an organization or aid fund that might be able to help those seeking assistance from Secular Rescue? Email us at [email protected] if you would like us to add your organization’s information to our online resources. Thank you!
